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We've fought, shopped, protested, strolled and cheered along its length for almost 150 years. But what is Queen St — a thoroughfare, a shopping precinct or a public space?

Cherie Howie searches for the future of the Jekyll and Hyde that is Queen St.

It's the Queen's own street, in the Queen's own city - this stretch of Auckland's golden mile, or just over 1.7km to be exact.

Every day thousands trek its bluestone pavers, past tired old buildings and shiny new ones, past the massage hawkers by day, the drum-beating Hare Krishnas by night and the scattered beggars by all hours, past the queues outside Prada and Gucci and the chock-full souvenir shops selling "Made in Bangladesh" New Zealand T-shirts for $10.

Auckland Council's six-year-old City Centre Master Plan lays out a 20-year vision for what it calls — north of the Victoria St intersection — the city centre's "engine room" but Goff says little has been actioned and Queen St needs change, among that permanent sections of shared space with pedestrians when trams return next decade.

His planning committee chairman, councillor Chris Darby, who said he was often asked when Queen St would be pedestriansed and himself thought the street was in "drastic need" of revitalisation, said the master plan was being "refreshed" by council staff and would be presented to his committee at a workshop next month.

"Potentially it's looking at a no-cars environment for Queen St, it could be one or two blocks."

Plans were needed because trams could not just happen in isolation on Queen St - when they come it will be a "complete transformation" for the street.

'He thought it was dead'

At the start of Queen St, a few footsteps from the waterfront, future Auckland has brazenly shown its hand — the old Downtown Mall is gone and the $1 billion Commercial Bay retail, hotel and office tower development is changing the skyline above, just as the $3.4b City Rail Link will below.

At its end, those crossing the Karangahape Rd ridge on wheels woosh down into the Queen St valley, where apartment buildings and offices lean into the incline as a few hardy pedestrians inch up it.

In between is, well, everything.

Rows of Asian restaurants north of Mayoral Dr reflect the now two-decade old changing face of our biggest city, and sticky pavements outside McDonald's and Wendy's reflect a changing globe as multinationals ever-tighten their grip on the wallets of the world.

Big box chains have staked their claim around the street's centre and few family-owned businesses remain on the country's main drag — 138-year-old department store Smith & Caughey's is a prominent exception, while tucked-away the 84-year-old Marbecks music store is a less visible one.

And for all the concessions made for pedestrians, and the push for public transport — in the past decade wider footpaths and pedestrian-friendly traffic light sequencing have sent a strong message to those at the wheel and trams will return after 65 years by 2021 under a Government plan - motorists retain a strong presence.

All of the above means Queen St is noisy, tired, exciting, busy and frustrating.

Ask people on the street — visitors, locals or retailers — what they think and the answers are as varied as the thousands who frequent our most high-profile street every day.

But when the construction workers pack up their tools in 2020 the site outside Britomart will become a large pedestrian square with street furniture, space for events and pavement designs that depict waves coming to shore and the Waihorotiu Stream, which once ran into the harbour and still exists below Queen St, according to Auckland Council concept designs released in April.

It's all part of the changing city, a change that would take time, Beck said.

"We're evolving from a city that was very focused on cars to a city focused on public transport. We're in the middle of these changes and you can't just snap your fingers and have it change.

"We have to be realistic. There are challenges ... but I think we've got to be positive about the opportunities ahead."

'We're going to run out of room for the pedestrians'

That's Goff's mantra too.

His fondest memories of Queen St are the times it was closed to traffic for the Santa parades he attended as a child and the America's Cup victory parades he attended with his own children — and he wants to bring back partial and occasional closures with a view to easing the public into permanent pedestrianisation.

He puts numbers to Beck's talk of a changing city; city centre daily pedestrian numbers doubling to between 300,000 and 500,000 between 2012 and 2016, the city centre population rising from 9000 in 2001 to 53,000 in 2018 and 37,000 students travelling into the city centre every day.

"What that means is we've got to adapt the city to the changes happening there and in Queen St. We've got to make it more people focused, rather than transport focused.

"My vision is when we rip up the road for light rail ... there will be sections of it we'll permanently pedestrianise. Long-term with the population growth, the cruise ship visitors and the people working there, we're going to run out of room for the pedestrians."

Life is better for pedestrians in Queen St since changes a decade ago, but the street may become even more friendly to those on foot in future. Photo / Michael Craig

Goff's wishes haven't gone to his council, but temporary road closures for events and shared space along some of Queen St's length, as well as publicly-accessible wifi for the whole city centre, were among future changes envisioned in the City Centre Master Plan Goff referred to.

Talk of giving cars the boot from at least some sections of Queen St will be music to the ears of Matt Lawrie, director transport and urban issues lobby Greater Auckland.

"There's no loading docks between Aotea Square and the bottom of Queen St ... there's not a single reason for a car to be on Queen St."

Not everyone is ready to banish cars to the surrounding streets.

AA infrastructure principal advisor Barney Irvine said Auckland AA members were keen to see more pedestrian-focused spaces in the central business district, but getting into, and through, the central city in vehicles was still important to them – whether for work or pleasure.

An AA survey of Auckland members last year found 50 per cent of respondents had never heard of the idea of pedestrianising Queen St, and 38 per cent were only vaguely aware of it.

"So public support might not be quite as high as some people in the council are assuming ... we'd want to see the council tread pretty carefully with this idea."

Goff was confident that attitudes towards booting cars out of the city centre, political suicide a few years ago, were changing.

More than half of people coming into the city walked, biked or used public transport and shared spaces had proved positive in places such as Fort St, where retail spending increased by 47 per cent after cars and pedestrians began sharing the road, he said.

The council doing its bit to improve public spaces, from better public transport to more room to move, to cleaner streets, would also encourage big business to see a future in the city.

That would have its own effect of improving Queen St, he said.

"Keep the best of your history ... [but] instead of drab old buildings we'll start to get iconic buildings architecturally designed to be outstanding. Auckland is New Zealand's only potentially truly global city. We've got to encourage that with this sort of investment in Auckland."

Mayor Phil Goff favours Wynyard Quarter and Freyberg Pl for his visitors for now, but hopes that will change to include Queen St in future. File photo / Nick Reed

Future bright - top architect

And the future was looking even brighter for the director of Stout Dodd Architects, who is also chairwoman of Urban Auckland, a lobby group focused on quality design of the city and development of the waterfront.

"It's packed on the weekend — it never used to be. [Now] it's about changing the balance."

Architect Julie Stout thinks Queen St will be more avenue than street in a decade. File Photo / Nick Reed

I've become a bloody unofficial tourist information centre. [Visitors] say, 'Well, Queen St - is this it?', I say, 'No, you have to go to Mt Eden, even Mission Bay'. We need to give them stuff to do and places to relax and not feel like a tourist. Do you want to see New Zealand, do you want to eat New Zealand food? Then get off Queen St. I also like to tell people to go to K Rd, because it's more bohemian and honest.

I quite like the feel of Auckland now. It's got a more modern feel about it. In the 70s and 80s it was kind of a dodgy place to hang out, even during the day. The police are really good these days. I wish [the council] would stop messing around with Aotea Square. It seems like a make-work thing and it's costing the ratepayers. It's been changed about four times that I can remember.

Sanchre Scott, 43, mum, North Shore

Sanchre Scott, of North Shore, and her sister-in-law Lauren Johnson, of Durban. Photo / Michael Craig

The council need to yank their socks up. It looks tired and a lot of it is maintenance. I think it could be slicker. You've got a great bunch of businesses and they spend a lot [on rates]. Auckland's still a small city, they've got to be very careful not to expand or close off areas for pedestrians only that are just going to create big vacuums.